Tanvir Ahmed Tusher (Noakhali Science and Technology University, Kathmandu School of Law, and Center for the Study of Genocide and Justice) has posted Governing the Invisible Giant: TWAIL, the Energy-Water Nexus, and the International Legal Void in AI Infrastructure on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
By 2030, AI data centres are projected to consume 945 terawatt-hours of electricity and withdraw freshwater equivalent to the annual domestic needs of 1.3 billion people. This resource extraction is concentrated in the Global North yet its ecological burden falls disproportionately on developing states: in Bangladesh’s Kaliakoir Hi-Tech Park, AI-driven groundwater extraction has already depressed local water tables from 150 to over 300 feet, threatening irreversible coastal salinity intrusion. No binding international instrument presently governs this transboundary energy-water footprint. The Paris Agreement’s Nationally Determined Contributions set no floor on digital infrastructure emissions; the ILC Draft Articles on Prevention of Transboundary Harm face severe evidentiary barriers in attributing diffuse groundwater depletion to private multinational operators; and investment treaties produce regulatory chill against host-state environmental intervention. Drawing on doctrinal analysis, comparative treaty interpretation, and Third World Approaches to International Law, this paper argues that Common But Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities constitutes a substantive — not merely aspirational — obligation requiring dominant AI-infrastructure states to internalise their transboundary resource externalities. The paper further demonstrates that distributed computing architectures structurally evade existing regulatory thresholds, and proposes a lex ferenda pathway toward a binding multilateral disclosure and due diligence standard.
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